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Vijaya Pushkarna
Vijaya Pushkarna

POLITICS

Hazards of a hung House

PTI3_14_2017_000123B Finance Minister Arun Jaitely said the governor could not have invited the minority of 17 MLAs to form government in Goa | PTI

Many years ago, in the small state of Haryana, the Lok Dal leader, late Chaudhary Devi Lal, and the Congress leader, the late Bansi Lal, were locked in a claim to be the chief minister on the strength of unknown numbers they had. The very “Brit”, B.N. Chakravarti, a retired ICS officer, was the governor.

“This is not a school and I am not a headmaster. Go to the assembly and prove your strength there,” he told Devi Lal who landed at the governor's residence with his horde of legislators.

MLAs are prime property when no party has a clear majority. The fight between leader of the single largest party elected by voters and the largest combination of elected representatives—before or after the elections—has always been an issue. And always settled.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitely on Tuesday gave it back to the Congress that described the Goa governor's accepting Manohar Parrikar's claim to form government as a “murder of democracy”. Parrikar had put together 21 of the 40 MLAs, while the Congress, despite being the largest party with 17 members, did not stake its claim. 

In a signed piece that he released to the media, Jaitley pointed out that the debate on whether the largest single party lacking majority or a combination of parties constituting a majority should be called to form government first, was settled by former president K.R. Narayanan in March 1998. 

Narayanan had invited Atal Behari Vajpayee to form government, and the former president reasoned, “When no party or pre-election alliance of parties is in a clear majority, the Head of State has in India or elsewhere given the first opportunity to the leader of the party or combination of parties that has won the largest number of seats, subject to the prime ministers so appointed, obtaining majority support on the floor of the house, within a stipulated time.” 

Narayanan had also pointed out that this procedure was, however, “not an all time formula because situations can arise where MPs not belonging to the single largest party or combination can, as a collective entity, out-number the single largest claimant. The President's choice of Prime Minister is pivoted on the would be Prime Minister's claim of commanding majority support.”

Jaitely said the governor could not have invited the minority of 17 MLAs to form government in Goa, and adduced examples of the Shibhu Soren government that was sworn with 17 MLAs plus support from others, while the BJP with 30 out of 81 seats could not form government in Jharkhand in 2005.

In 2002, the National Conference with 28 MLAs could not form government in Jammu and Kashmir, as the governor invited the combination of PDP and Congress with their 15 + 21 MLAs to form government.

Most importantly, when the BJP won 31 assembly seats in Delhi in 2013, they could not form a government because AAP with 28 with the support of the Congress pipped them to the post!

But as the Chakravarti direction to Devi Lal's appeal went, Bansi Lal got a reprieve, got the numbers, and became chief minister many times. Whenever he was chief minister, the beautiful lake in Karnal—midway between the national capital and the Haryana capital of Chandigarh—was named B.N. Çhakravarti Lake. Devi Lal was naturally angry. Whenever he became chief minister or his party formed government after him, it was Karna Lake! The lake continues to suffer the identity crisis even now.

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Topics : #politics | #Goa

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